Zionism

Zionism and Zionstheologie

Jim West takes me to task for using a term, “Zionism,” in reference to a strand of biblical eschatology. I am, of course, using the term in accordance with established precedent (see below for a short bibliography).

To be sure, it is more common in biblical studies to use a term like “Zionstheologie.” But this term is not as descriptive as one might like. “Zion theology” in its various forms within Jewish, Christian, and Islamic tradition has far-ranging religious and political implications that are swept under the rug with the use of a cover-term like “Zion theology.”

It is ironic that it is Jim West who protests the use of the term “Zionism” in biblical studies. I have heard anti-Zionist members of the Sheffield school of biblical studies – among whose number, I think, it is fair to say Jim belongs – say things to this effect: the Old Testament is basically a Jewish Zionist propaganda document.

So which is it, Jim? Members of your own school are among those who have shown that Zionism has deep roots in biblical literature. Beyond that, Zionism, and more generally, political messianism, are constants within Judaism. Insofar as early Christianity was a strand of Judaism, it is not at all surprising that it contains a Zionist hope and political messianism in a variety of forms.

Post-Zionists in particular are clear-eyed about the extent to which Zionism characterized Judaism up until the last two centuries. Since then, Zionism has enjoyed a historical realization of major proportions – thanks to the efforts of secular and religious Jewish Zionists alike, and with an important assist from non-Jewish British Zionists, religious and secular, like Arthur Balfour. But Zionism has also become a much-contested concept, within and outside of the august confines of “modern political” debate to which Jim West wants to relegate it.

Protestations to the contrary notwithstanding, the ubiquity of the Zionist hope and political messianism in pre-modern Judaism cannot be gainsaid. For starters, I would refer the interested reader to the scholarship of Laurence Silberstein. Here is the opening paragraph of a review essay of his published in 1974:

Since the end of the eighteenth century, the Jewish community has been engaged in a continuous debate concerning the nature of Judaism and the Jewish community. Prior to that time, a combination of factors created a consensus among the Jews whereby the term “Jew” functioned simultaneously as both an ethnic and a religious category. Jews, in addition to sharing a body of sacred tradition, viewed themselves as members of a distinct community sharing common origins and [a] common historical lot. In addition they, at least in theory, considered their existence outside of the land of Israel to be unnatural and anomalous, and looked to the messiah to restore them to their homeland and reconstitute their political autonomy under a revived Davidic monarchy.

The Jewish community of the first century of this era, of which Christianity as attested in the New Testament was a part, partook of the consensus of which Silberstein speaks.

Zionism in practice, like US foreign policy, is only possible when alliances are formed between opposing factions (between secular and religious Zionists; between Jacksonians, Hamiltonians, Wilsonians, and/or Jeffersonians).

Inevitably, then, ideologues are never happy with the resulting compromise, diluted further by the vagaries of history and the human propensity to exact pain on the "Other."

Believing is KnowingComments on things like prophecy, predestination, and reward and punishment from an orthodox Jewish perspective, by David Guttmann

Ben Byerly's Blogthoughts on the Bible, Africa, Kenya, aid, and social justice, by Ben Byerly, a PhD candidate at Africa International University (AIU), in Nairobi, Kenya working on “The Hopes of Israel and the Ends of Acts” (Luke’s narrative defense of Paul to Diaspora Judeans in Acts 16-20)

C. OrthodoxyChristian, Contemporary, Conscientious… or Just Confused, by Ken Brown, a very thoughtful blog (archive). Ken is currently a Dr. Theol. student at Georg-August-Universität in Göttingen, part of The Sofja-Kovalevskaja Research Group studying early Jewish Monotheism. His dissertation will focus on the presentation of God in Job.

Catholic Biblesa thoughtful blog about Bible translations by Timothy, who has a degree in sacred theology from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome (Angelicum) and teaches theology in a Catholic high school in Michigan

Chrisendomirreverent blog with a focus on the New Testament, by Chris Tilling, New Testament Tutor for St Mellitus College and St Paul's Theological Centre, London

Claude Mariottinia perspective on the Old Testament and current events by a professor of Old Testament at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, Chicagoland, Illinois

Codex: Biblical Studies Blogspotby Tyler Williams, a scholar of the Hebrew Bible and cognate literature, now Assistant Professor of Theology at The King's University College in Edmonton, Alberta (archive)

Colours of Scripturereflections on theology, philosophy, and literature, by Benjamin Smith, afflicted with scriptural synaesthesia, and located in London, England

ComplegalitarianA team blog that discusses right ways and wrong ways Scripture might help in the social construction of gender (old archive only; more recent archive, unfortunately, no longer publicly available)

Connected Christianitya place to explore what it might be like if Christians finally got the head, heart, and hands of their faith re-connected (archive)

Conversational TheologySmart and delightful comment by Ros Clarke, a Ph.D. student at the University of the Highlands and Islands, at the (virtual) Highland Theological College (archive)

Daily HebrewFor students of biblical Hebrew and the ancient Near East, by Chip Hardy, a doctoral student at the University of Chicago

Daniel O. McClellana fine blog by the same, who is pursuing a master of arts degree in biblical studies at Trinity Western University just outside of Vancouver, BC.

Davar AkherLooking for alternative explanations: comments on things Jewish and beyond, by Simon Holloway, a PhD student in Classical Hebrew and Biblical Studies at The University of Sydney, Australia

Evedyahuexcellent comment by Cristian Rata, Lecturer in Old Testament of Torch Trinity Graduate School of Theology, Seoul, Korea

Exegetica Digitadiscussion of Logos high-end syntax and discourse tools – running searches, providing the downloads (search files) and talking about what can be done and why it might matter for exegesis, by Mike Heiser

Law, Prophets, and Writingsthoughtful blogging by William R. (Rusty) Osborne, Assistant Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies as College of the Ozarks and managing editor for Journal for the Evangelical Study of the Old Testament

Lingamishdelightful fare by David Ker, Bible translator, who also lingalilngas.

old testament passionGreat stuff from Anthony Loke, a Methodist pastor and Old Testament lecturer in the Seminari Theoloji, Malaysia

Old Testament Pseudepigrapha BlogA weblog created for a course on the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, by James Davila (archive)

On the Main LineMississippi Fred MacDowell's musings on Hebraica and Judaica. With a name like that you can't go wrong.

p.ost an evangelical theology for the age to comeseeking to retell the biblical story in the difficult transition from the centre to the margins following the collapse of Western Christendom, by Andrew Perriman, independent New Testament scholar, currently located in Dubai

PaleoJudaicaby James Davila, professor of Early Jewish Studies at the University of St. Andrews, St Andrews, Scotland. Judaism and the Bible in the news; tidbits about ancient Judaism and its context

Serving the Wordincisive comment on the Hebrew Bible and related ancient matters, with special attention to problems of philology and linguistic anthropology, by Seth L. Sanders, Assistant Professor in the Religion Department of Trinity College, Hartford, CT

Targumanon biblical and rabbinic literature, Christian theology, gadgetry, photography, and the odd comic, by Christian Brady, associate professor of ancient Hebrew and Jewish literature and dean of the Schreyer Honors College at Penn State

The Biblia Hebraica Bloga blog about Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, the history of the Ancient Near East and the classical world, Syro-Palestinian archaeology, early Judaism, early Christianity, New Testament interpretation, English Bible translations, biblical theology, religion and culture, philosophy, science fiction, and anything else relevant to the study of the Bible, by Douglas Magnum, PhD candidate, University of the Free State, South Africa

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